An advocate's endeavour to get Supreme Court to issue a directive for the Centre to rein in the rising rates of vegetables like onions today backfired when the apex court suggested that the petitioner should stop consuming the item himself for a few months in order to control the prices.

A bench headed by Justice BS Chauhan dismissed the PIL filed by the advocate, who submitted that the Centre had "grossly" failed in controlling the food inflation.

"You stop eating onions for two months and its price would come under control. Don't burden with these cases. We cannot entertain such petitions," the bench told the advocate.

The advocate, Vishnu Pratap Singh, contended that the government was depriving the poorest and weakest sections of society of their right to life and food through its failure to control the prices of essential commodities.

"The Centre has grossly failed to invoke the statutory provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, to control the food inflation and, more precisely, the prices of onions and other basic vegetables, like potatoes and tomatoes, which have been steadily rising due to artificial scarcity created by traders and hoarders," the petitioner had said.